The Fire Within: Trouble in Paradise
by The Mayor of Ninjago City
Summary: Cole is disappointed when his girlfriend Brooke travels to faraway Paradise Beach during her spring break from her college classes. But what happens when he and Lloyd are assigned to a mission near the beach, and he plans to surprise her? This story is a part of the "The Fire Within" series, which was originated by measuremesky. She gave me permission to use her material.
1. Paradise Awaits

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Howdy! This is The Mayor of Ninjago City with a brand new story, this one featuring our favorite earth ninja, Cole!**

 **This short story is the latest installment in the The Fire Within series, which was originated by the author measuremesky when she began her first Ninjago fanfic _The Fire Within_. That fanfic, along with her follow-up story _A Degree in Danger_ , can be found on this website. Measuremesky is a family member of mine, and she gave me permission to use her material to write my own contributions to the The Fire Within series. Check out my profile page for a list of titles.**

 **The story you are about to read below takes place just one month after my recently completed fanfic _The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident_. And before I go further, I wish to thank Kairocksrainbow, Guest, FirstFandomFangirl, lovesgod12, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, and Naruby7 for your wonderful comments on the final chapter of my Valentine tale. You all made my day!**

 **My new spring break tale focuses on the continuing relationship between our favorite earth ninja and his love interest, a cute college girl named Brooke. The relationship has been going on for several months at this point.**

 **Brooke decides to take advantage of an opportunity to spend her spring break from university classes at a faraway beach. Cole is disappointed at being separated from her until a mission suddenly comes up in which he and Lloyd will be working close to where Brooke is vacationing. He thinks it will be fun to surprise her, but what happens? Stay tuned...**

 **After this week, I'll try to publish this story on Thursdays. Hope you enjoy this first chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Paradise Awaits**

"Ha! I won again!" Jay gloated upon trouncing his video game opponent, Cole, for the third time.

"Yeah, whatever," Cole said distractedly. He looked out the window onto the Bounty's deck. Outside, a group of seven people were sitting around the fire pit on this cool Saturday evening in March, after enjoying a delicious dinner prepared by Zane.

Sensei Wu, Nya, Kai, and Kai's fiancee Samantha Miller were socializing with Sam's mom, dad, and aunt, who had traveled six hours from their home village to Ninjago City, along with Sam's 12-year-old brother Todd. The Miller family members, who were lodging at the Adams Hotel during their stay, had come to visit Sam during her week-long spring break from Ninjago University classes, as well as to meet the family of her future husband.

Sam had accepted Kai's proposal of marriage on Valentine's Day just a few weeks ago, shortly after Sam's rescue from her kidnapper, the evil sorcerer Sebastian. So now, while her family was in town, they all planned to work on preparations for the wedding, which would be taking place in Ninjago City in August, five months from now.

Tonight was the very first time that Sam's family and the ninja team had met each other, and only the second time the Millers had socialized with Kai, having met him last night at a downtown restaurant. After they all had enjoyed tonight's friendly dinner, the ninjas of blue, black, green, and white opted out of the post-dinner conversation, knowing that this was an opportunity for Kai, Nya, and Sensei to get to know the family of the girl who would soon be taking on the ancestral name of the master of fire.

Young Todd was not participating in the boring adult conversation, however. Right now, Lloyd was showing the preteen his comic book collection.

"Aw, c'mon, Cole, focus," the lightning ninja pleaded, noticing that his black-haired teammate seemed uninterested in the video game. "Don't tell me you're still bummed about Brooke going away for a week to Paradise Beach. Are you worried she's gonna meet some hunky guy there and forget all about you?" he grinned.

The earth ninja turned his head to glare at his teammate. "Shut it, zaptrap! I'm not worried about that." He then turned back to the window, his thoughts on his girlfriend, who he had met last summer by virtue of her being Sam's dormitory roommate at Ninjago University, otherwise known as Ninjago U, its common nickname.

Brooke had badly wanted to travel to a beach this year and originally had planned to go in the summer, on the few vacation days granted to her from her summertime job at a clothing store in her home village, about three hours away from Ninjago U. But now she was going to be a bridesmaid in Kai and Sam's wedding in August, so that meant spending her summer vacation time in Ninjago City instead of at a beach.

However, it turned out that the Ninjago U student council was sponsoring a spring break bus trip to Paradise Beach, so Brooke decided to sign up for it instead of seeking a temporary job as a live-in nanny as she had done during last year's spring break. An additional opportunity she could have taken, and the one Cole had hoped she would, was to spend the week at the Bounty. She and Sam had stayed there the first few days of their winter break a few months ago before heading home to their respective villages, but Brooke didn't want to impose on the ninja team's hospitality for a whole week.

So yesterday, the bus left for the beach, and Brooke was on it.

"I was just hoping Brooke and I could've done some chilling out together over her break, since her classes have been pretty intense this semester, as opposed to last semester," Cole said out loud to Jay. "She's been so busy and we haven't spent a whole lot of time together - I've only seen her once since our Valentine's Day date. I thought we'd maybe catch that Joel Taylor concert next Thursday at the Arena." Cole had been pleased when he found out that Brooke enjoyed soft rock, just like he did.

"And when she comes back from spring break, she'll be busy planning the surprise bridal shower that the girls on their dorm floor are going to have for Sam at the end of the semester," Cole added in a low voice to avoid any chance of being heard by the bride-to-be outside.

He sighed. "Guess I'll just have to wait till August to spend any real time with her."

* * *

Two mornings later, on Monday, the ninja team sat around the breakfast table. Frosted Oats cereal was the simple breakfast entree, as today was going to be an otherwise unusual day. This morning, the Miller family was going to return to the Bounty to discuss - with Sensei Wu and Kai - traditional ninja marriage protocols, such as who should be invited to the wedding. The Millers were also going observe a ninja training session.

Kai seemed extra happy this morning, and Cole assumed it was because the fire ninja would be showing off his warrior skills for his future in-laws later in the day. Kai's foot injury was almost healed after the ninjas' first encounter with the evil Sebastian back in January. Cole also figured that Kai was happy about going out to dinner with his future wife and her family afterward.

Cole was definitely not as effervescent as his red teammate, but he was beginning to resign himself to a week of being hundreds of miles apart from his girl.

The phone rang in the control room.

"I'll get it!" Kai announced, jumping up from the table. "It's probably Sam."

After a minute, he returned. "Actually, Sensei, the phone's for you. It's the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources."

The white-bearded teacher stood up and excused himself. "I was not expecting any calls from them, so I am curious to find out why they are trying to reach us at this early hour," he said as he left the room.

Sensei was on the phone for a while. By the time he reappeared to the team, they had already finished eating and were putting away the breakfast items and clearing the dirty dishes.

"Want me to fix you something more for breakfast, Sensei? You didn't get a chance to eat much before the phone rang," Nya offered.

"No, thank you, Nya," Sensei replied. "But I do need to talk to you all."

Their curiosities piqued, the ninja team members quickly finished the breakfast cleanup chores while Sensei poured himself a fresh cup of tea and sat at the dining table.

"The reason the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources called this morning," Sensei told the team, now assembled around the table, "was to ask for help in preparing some of the coastal beaches against erosion from hurricanes. Typically, hurricane season does not start until June, over two months from now, but last night, a weather system was spotted moving this way from across the ocean, on Ninjago Weather Service satellite radar, and it looks like the sort of system from which a hurricane could be spawned."

He continued. "The Department of Natural Resources thought it had two months to prepare for a hurricane, but now it only has about ten days. So I am sending Cole and Lloyd to help them. You two will be using your powers at a quarry to expediently break up and move chunks of earth onto trains which will carry the earth material to the coastline to be used to shore up the beaches against damaging ocean waves."

"I told Mr. Francis, the department director, that you two would arrive at the quarry in the mid-afternoon, so you'll need to pack your duffel bags as soon as possible and be on your dragons within the hour."

It had been a while since Cole had the opportunity to give his elemental power a real workout, so this mission was sounding good to him. "So what's the name of this quarry, Sensei?" he asked. "And where exactly is it located?"

"The quarry is called Paradise Quarry, and it's about forty miles from the ocean," Sensei answered, looking him in the eye, "near a beach called Paradise Beach."

Everyone looked at Cole as his eyes widened. _I'll be near Brooke!_ he thought excitedly.

"I can tell what Romeo's thinking!" Jay teased.

Sensei cleared his throat. "The primary focus of this mission should be the quarry," he admonished the earth ninja, "but since you'll need some down time to replenish your energy for your elemental power, I suppose there will be opportunities for visiting the surrounding area."

"Oh, yeah, he's gonna go sightseeing!" Kai grinned.

"Yeah, as soon as our work is done each day, he's gonna breeze outta there and leave me behind," Lloyd joked, pretending to cry.

Cole rose from the table in an upbeat mood, the cheeriest he had felt in days. "Don't worry, green machine. I'm sure Brooke knows someone you can hang out with. Let's get packing! Has anyone seen my sunscreen?"


	2. First Night in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Happy Monday! I decided to publish new chapters of this story on Mondays and Thursdays in order to finish by Easter, which falls at the end of March this year.**

 **Hey, Kairocksrainbow, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, FirstFandomFangirl, and lovesgod12! Thanks for your comments, and thanks to all the readers for reading!**

 **Please check out the poll that I put on my author profile page. As you may know, at the end of my last story,** _ **The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident**_ **, Sam accepted Kai's proposal of marriage, and they plan to have the wedding in August. My poll question is:**

 **Where should Kai and Sam go on their honeymoon?**

 **I ask because I'm starting to formulate ideas for that story. The poll specifies a few possibilities, but if you can think of one that I didn't mention, please PM me.**

 **In the chapter below, Cole and Lloyd have arrived in Paradise...**

* * *

 **Chapter 2 - First Night in Paradise**

Cole and Lloyd's trip on their dragons to Paradise Quarry was uneventful. They met the head of the quarry and several members of the crew with whom they would be working this week. After being given work clothes and equipment, as well as being shown to the temporary living quarters they would be sharing, Cole called Sensei Wu to let him know they arrived. Then the earth ninja and his blond teammate still had time to put in several hours of earth blasting and earth moving until sunset, when it was time for them to stop for reasons of safety and conservation of their personal energy.

Now it was about an hour after sunset. Cole and Lloyd had opted to skip the diner near the quarry and reactivate their dragons for the 40-mile ride to Paradise Beach in search of dinner...and Brooke. They reached the outskirts of the seaside town and dismounted the dragons along the main road, aptly named Paradise Road, that led into the little burgh.

"Well, green machine," Cole said, lightly punching his comrade on the arm, "let's find us some grub."

"I still wish you would've given me time to change out of these work clothes," Lloyd complained. "I feel dusty."

Cole sighed as he looked down at his own dusty work uniform. He hadn't wanted to take the time to shower and dress in more beachy attire, for he had been in a hurry to get here. But Lloyd was right. They were a bit too grungy for walking in public.

"I got an idea," he said, snapping his fingers. "Maybe spinjitzu will blow the dirt off."

Lloyd rolled his eyes at his teammate. But he, like his ninja brother had just begun to do, formed a martial arts tornado.

"Mmm, it might have helped a little," Lloyd said after completing the spinjitzu. "But tomorrow, I still want to freshen up first."

The two ninja walked a short way down the road, breathing in the warm, moist tropical air, a different - and nice - change of pace from the cool drier air back up in Ninjago City.

They paused on the corner of what looked like a small downtown area. Quite a few young men and women of college age were strolling the sidewalks.

Cole and Lloyd continued walking. The first block of the downtown area held the post office, a bank, a doctor's office, and the town library. All were currently closed for the evening.

They crossed the side street which intersected with Paradise Road in order to get to the next block. Here, one side of the thoroughfare was anchored by a casual diner with a bright pink scalloped awning and was simply called The Pie Shoppe. Next to the diner, heading toward the ocean, was located a gift shop, and next to that was a store selling beach wardrobe items. This building was the last building on the street, where the asphalt yielded to gravel and then the sand of the beach. They could hear the sound of a loudspeaker coming from the beach area, out of their line of sight.

On the other side of the street, there were some more stores, along with a fast-food restaurant offering hamburgers, hot dogs, and the like. The hotel, with its six stories, was easily visible, even though it was located on the next block over.

"Why is everyone wearing sports jerseys or matching T-shirts?" Lloyd asked.

Cole looked, and Lloyd was right. "Good question. You wanna eat at The Pie Shoppe tonight? Maybe we can ask our server."

Lloyd agreed, so they walked back to the restaurant and went inside. The door chime rang as they entered.

Only a few patrons were seated inside the diner. A radio playing a local soft rock music station could be heard from the diner's kitchen in the back, along with the clanks of dishes being handled by unseen restaurant employees.

The ninja brothers stood at the host stand for just a moment until a thin young man wearing black pants, a white shirt, and a black bow tie with a nametag of "Jeremy" came up to them.

"Welcome to The Pie Shoppe. I'm Jeremy. Will you be having dinner or just pie this evening?" He smiled politely, but he did not really seem happy.

"Uh, dinner, please," Lloyd replied.

"Sure." The blond-haired server grabbed two laminated menus from inside the host stand. "Follow me, please."

He led them to a window booth and waited until they sat down before he placed a menu in front of each of them. "Can I get you something to drink while you decide what you'd like to eat?"

Cole found the list of beverage options on the menu. "I'll have a glass of sweet iced tea, please."

"And I'd like a lemonade," the green ninja responded.

"OK, one sweet iced tea and one lemonade. I'll be back in a few minutes with those drinks and to take your order then," Jeremy nodded at them and turned to leave.

Cole quickly scanned the menu and chose his preferred entree. He noticed that Lloyd was having trouble deciding.

"Hurry up, Lloyd! I want to eat and get out of here so we can look for Brooke."

"I'm trying!" Lloyd shot back. "I still don't understand why you want to do the surprise thing. Just call her up and tell her you're in town and you'll meet her at a certain place!"

Cole gave him an annoyed look. "Surprising her is a more romantic thing to do," he explained.

"Whatever." Lloyd gave up on arguing further.


	3. All is Not Well in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **For those of us in the northern hemisphere, astronomical spring begins with the vernal equinox on March 19. Which means warmer weather for us is not too far off!**

 **Thanks to the readers of my spring break story, and the commenters on the previous chapter: lovesgod12, FirstFandomFangirl, and AveCXninja11!**

 **I invite you to check out the poll on my author profile page, which asks where Kai should take his bride Sam on their honeymoon. I'm just starting to formulate ideas for that future story, but you can bet there'll be some drama, for sure!**

 **The chapter below is a continuation of the scene from the previous chapter...**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - All is Not Well in Paradise**

Jeremy, the Pie Shoppe server, soon returned to the ninjas' booth with their beverages. Then Cole ordered the house special, the PS Deluxe Burger, and Lloyd selected the Italian beef sandwich meal.

As the earth ninja handed his menu back to the bow-tied order taker, he asked, "So, Jeremy, do you know why everyone's dressed either in sports team shirts or in matching T-shirts?"

"Well, tonight the Paradise Beach Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring Sports Night down at the beach. It's one of the theme nights they're having all this week for the kids from the different colleges," Jeremy explained. "Tonight they're having athletic contests - throwing, racing, stuff like that. Tomorrow night they'll have Talent Night, Wednesday they'll have Luau Night, Thursday is the rock concert by The Crease, and…"

"The Crease is going to play here on Thursday? I love that band!" Cole exclaimed.

"I like them, too. In fact," Jeremy said, frowning, "I was going to take my girlfriend to the concert and ask her to the prom while we were there. But she broke up with me in homeroom class this morning."

Cole and Lloyd winced like they had just witnessed an especially hard tackle in a football game. "What happened?" Lloyd ventured to ask.

"Sarah met this college guy on Saturday afternoon at the beach while I was working. Guess his name is Lance. She liked him so much that she cancelled our date on Saturday night so she could keep hanging out with him. That's what she told me today. Then she said I was too boring."

Jeremy realized that maybe he was talking too much. "And I guess I'm probably boring you with my tale of woe," he said, making sure he had the two menus tucked in the crook of his arm as he prepared to leave the table.

"No, not at all," Cole waved aside Jeremy's contriteness to indicate it wasn't necessary. "So you must be in high school?" Cole figured he was, but he wanted to distract the server from his remorse.

"Yeah, I'm a senior at Paradise Beach High School," Jeremy replied, "In the fall I'm going to Ninjago University on a music scholarship," he proudly announced, exhibiting the first hint of genuine happiness they had seen him display.

"Hey, that's great!" Lloyd congratulated him. "We happen to live in Ninjago City," he said, waving his hand between himself and Cole.

Just then, the diner's door chime rang as some new customers entered.

"Excuse me," Jeremy said. "Let me take care of these folks, and I'll put in your meal orders, too." He politely nodded as he walked away.

It just so happened that the radio in the diner's kitchen began to broadcast the top-of-the-hour news. The lead story about the hurricane caught their attention, and the ninja paused to listen. The eye of the storm was predicted to make landfall about 75 miles west of Paradise Beach in about 7-10 days.

"Hmm," Cole mused, "that's a little earlier than they were thinking this morning."

Jeremy finished delivering beverages to the new arrivals to the diner and paused by the ninjas' booth as he headed to the kitchen. "How's everything here?" he asked. "Do you need a refill of your drinks?"

The ninja brothers did not require anything just then, but Lloyd felt like maybe they should introduce themselves.

"By the way, my name is Lloyd, and this is Cole," he said, gesturing to the earth ninja on the other side of the table.

"Nice to meet you guys," Jeremy smiled, seeming a little more relaxed than before. "So you're from Ninjago City? What brings you to Paradise Quarry?"

For a second, Cole wondered how he knew they were associated with the quarry, until he remembered that they were still wearing their gray uniforms with the name "Paradise Quarry" in big red letters on their backs. "Well, we're, uh, contractors who came to help out the quarry just for the week," he explained.

"Cool," Jeremy replied. He looked over toward the kitchen. "I think your food's ready. Hang on. I'll go check."

A minute later, Jeremy arrived with their food. While balancing the tray of food in one arm, he deftly opened the tray stand with the other. Setting the food tray on the stand, he swiftly and efficiently transferred the correct plates to the two diners.

"One Deluxe Burger and one Italian beef. Can I get you anything else?" the bow-tied server asked.

After his offer was politely declined, he said, "Well, if you decide later you need anything, or if you want advice on what to see or do during your stay here this week, let me know."

They thanked him as he left to attend to other diners.

Cole took a bit of his burger. "Mmm, this is good," he announced. "How's your sandwich? Good?"

"Mmm-hmm," the green ninja replied, his mouth full of Italian beef.

As Cole took a second bite of burger, he asked, "I think I'll suggest to Brooke that we come here for dinner tomorrow night."

Lloyd nodded as he reached for a napkin.

* * *

Because Cole was in a hurry to find Brooke, they turned down a slice of pie for dessert. Paying for their meal with money given to them by Sensei Wu, they left a nice tip for Jeremy. After saying goodnight to the server, they walked down to the beach. By the time they reached it, however, the evening's festivities were ending, and throngs of young people were making their way back toward the town area.

The ninja brothers stood off to the side, their eyes scanning the passing crowd for a glimpse of Brooke.

"I guess we missed her tonight," Cole frowned as the crowd thinned. "But at least we know our way around Paradise Beach now."

He turned to Lloyd. "As soon as our quarry work is done tomorrow, you hurry and freshen up while I call to update Sensei, then I'll freshen up, then we fly the dragons over here as fast as we can. Got it?"

Lloyd agreed. "Hey, dude, no argument from me!"


	4. Second Night in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Though tomorrow is March 1, my part of the USA is expected to get sleet and snow. So much for spring weather...**

 **March 2 marks the six-month anniversary of the posting of my first-ever fanfic chapter (from _The Fire Within a Ninjago Cowboy_ ). Time flies when you're having fun!**

 **And speaking of cowboys, I want to say "Howdy, pardners!" to all the readers of the story you are now reading, and also to FirstFandomFangirl, lovesgod12, and AveXCninja11 for commenting on the previous chapter. And as FFF noted, I did sprinkle some Nexo Knights-influenced names throughout this story!**

 **The brief conversation about Kai in the chapter you are about to read relates to a story I've been thinking about doing, which would chronicle the events that are taking place back at the Bounty at the exact same time this story is taking place.**

 **The chapter below is a bit longer than my usual chapter length, but I didn't want to split it in two. In this chapter, Cole thinks he will finally surprise Brooke, but she will end up being the one that surprises him...**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 - Second Night in Paradise**

Thanks to careful planning, the ninja brothers managed to arrive in Paradise Beach about a half-hour earlier than they did yesterday, this time dressed in T-shirts and shorts instead of their quarry uniforms.

Just like yesterday, they could see that only two or three tables were occupied in The Pie Shoppe when they entered. Jeremy was on duty once again, just as he indicated he would be before Cole and Lloyd departed last night.

"Hey, Lloyd! Hey, Cole!" he greeted them as he pulled two menus out of the host stand.

The ninja exchanged pleasantries with the server as Jeremy led them to the same booth they had occupied yesterday. "You guys still drinking iced tea and lemonade today?" he asked. Cole and Lloyd affirmed those choices as Jeremy handed them the menus.

Just then the door chime rang as new customers entered the restaurant.

"I'll be right back with the drinks," Jeremy said before he left to greet the new arrivals.

The young men then silently perused their menus, and they could hear the radio in the diner's kitchen broadcasting the bottom-of-the-hour news report. The leading story was the progress of the hurricane. The Ninjago Weather Service indicated that the eye of the hurricane was slated to reach the coast in 5-7 days, at a point 50 miles west of Paradise Beach.

Lloyd frowned. "The storm seems to be moving faster than they first thought," he commented.

"And getting closer to Paradise Beach," Cole added.

The news report contained a few additional stories and some sports results.

"The Ninjago City Knights won today? Wasn't that the game you said Kai was going to go to today with Jim and Todd?" Lloyd asked, referring to the father and brother of Kai's fiancee.

Cole nodded. "Yeah, they were going to have a men's day out while the ladies shopped for Sam's wedding dress. I guess Jim ought to be happy if the Knights won. On Saturday he said he was a big fan of theirs."

"In that case, Kai can buy all sorts of Knights hats and jerseys and stuff to give as gifts to his future father-in-law, to keep on his good side!" Lloyd chuckled. Cole laughed as well.

Jeremy returned with the beverages. He was in a bit of a hurry, so as soon as he took down their menu choices, he left right away. Cole had settled on the pork rib meal and Lloyd had decided on the taco platter.

The comrades bantered for a few more minutes about the goings-on at the Bounty. Then Cole's stomach growled, making him think of food again.

"Maybe we should've ordered a bowl of tomatoes, so we can take them with us and throw them at the talent show acts later," Cole joked.

"Dude, once we find Brooke, you're not gonna pay any attention to the show," the green ninja teased his comrade.

Cole gave him a look of annoyance, which made Lloyd laugh out loud.

"OK, green machine, very funny," the black-clad ninja conceded. "But you actually reminded me about something. If we get separated in the talent show crowd, let's wait for each other here before we head back to the quarry."

Jeremy returned to the booth with their dinners.

"There you go," he said, once he had finished distributing the plates. "Do you need anything? Extra sour cream for those tacos, maybe?"

"No, thanks," Lloyd replied, surveying his entree. "These look good already."

The door chime rang as new customers entered. It was a group of three young couples acting rowdy, especially the young men.

"Oh, no," Jeremy muttered, tensing up.

His anxiety did not go unnoticed. "What's wrong?" Cole asked.

"It's Sarah, and that must be Lance that she's with, and some of his buddies," Jeremy explained. He watched as they did not bother to wait to be seated but instead planted themselves in a curved corner booth, loudly laughing and jostling each other.

"We got your back, just in case," Lloyd assured him, noting the rowdiness of the newcomers.

"Thanks," the server mumbled before taking a deep breath and making his way to the host stand to collect menus to distribute to the new arrivals.

As the ninja ate their supper, they watched Jeremy interact with the customers across the restaurant. It was easy to tell which girl was Sarah - she was the one who stared at Jeremy with a defiant look on her face.

The guy who sat next to her apparently was Lance, and he was the loudest, biggest jerk in the group. After Jeremy brought out beverages, Lance said he had changed his mind and wanted to order a different drink. Then he deliberately knocked his piece of pie on the floor so that Jeremy needed to serve another piece. Then they needed more napkins. Jeremy was kept on his feet serving that one table, to the detriment of other tables in the restaurant.

"I've had enough," Lloyd finally muttered to Cole.

When Jeremy had left the rowdy group's booth to retrieve yet another item, Lloyd got up and approached the table of six.

"Having fun tonight?" the green ninja asked the group, his eyes focusing on Lance.

They all stopped what they were doing and stared at him. "Yeah. What's it to ya?" Lance responded.

"I'm glad you're having fun," Lloyd said, "but if you could keep the volume down a bit, that would be great."

As Lloyd stood there with his hands on his hips, Lance sized up the blond. So did Sarah.

"You know, there's three of us on my side and just one of you," he blustered.

The green ninja, who had defeated enemies such as the Overlord, could easily take out three college guys and not even break a sweat, but he wished to resolve this problem peacefully. He looked back at Cole and motioned for him to come over. "You forgot my friend over there," Lloyd coolly replied.

As Cole stood up and walked over, Lance and his two buddies could see that maybe they'd have a little trouble overpowering a trim and fit blond guy in a green T-shirt AND his muscular friend who stood a head taller than anyone else in the room.

"I suggest that if you want to keep having fun, maybe you should pay your bill, tip your server, and take it somewhere else," Lloyd stated.

Lance glared at him but realized that engaging them in an altercation would be a losing proposition. He looked at his buddies and tilted his head toward the door, indicating that it was time to leave. The guys and their dates began to slide out of the booth and stand up to leave.

The college guy kept his eye on Lloyd as he threw some money on the table from his wallet. "I'll be seeing ya around, green guy," he sneered as he put his arm around Sarah and followed their friends out the door.

As Sarah exited, tucked under Lance's arm, she cast a backward glance at Lloyd.

"Thanks, man," Jeremy said, tugging at his collar as he walked with Lloyd and Cole back to the ninjas' booth. "I was getting ready to call either my manager or the police - I wasn't sure which."

Lloyd sat down. "Don't mention it," he replied, waving his hand breezily. "Now I can finish my dinner in peace."

"Hey, either of you want a piece of pie for dessert? It's on the house," Jeremy offered.

"Thanks, Jeremy, but we'll have to pass on that," Cole interjected. "We've got something to do right after dinner."

Lloyd rolled his eyes.

* * *

Cole and Lloyd, having skipped dessert again, paid for their meal, nicely tipping Jeremy once again. They stood outside the entrance of The Pie Shoppe in the night air, pausing for a moment to look around before they headed down to the beach. Lloyd faced the direction of the beach and Cole faced the other way.

"Um, Cole," Lloyd said, nudging the earth ninja. "Look over there." He pointed in the direction of the beach.

Cole turned to look in the same direction. Up ahead, by the light of the streetlamps, they could see that Brooke had just exited the beach wardrobe shop, the last building on the block. She was standing on the sidewalk in front and holding the door for someone who had not yet come out. She was laughing and talking to the yet-unseen person.

Cole's heart beat faster. He had finally located his girlfriend, who was looking as pretty as ever with her long brown hair cascading down the back of her polka-dot sundress. He was about to begin sneaking up to her to surprise her, when her shopping companion came out of the building.

Cole had been expecting another young woman to be leaving the shop, so he was shocked when a tall, wiry young man stepped onto the sidewalk. This guy's hair was orange, with a cobalt blue streak running down the center of it, reminiscent of a mohawk style. He carried a package displaying the beach shop's logo.

Once the guy had exited, Brooke let go of the door and high-fived him. Then the young man put his arm around her shoulders, and she put her arm around his waist, and they trotted off toward the beach, laughing and talking all the while and definitely enjoying themselves.

Cole stood frozen, watching them disappear out of sight. He felt like he had just been punched in the stomach.

His girl had found another guy.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "You OK, buddy?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah," Cole answered listlessly. "I'm fine."

"Um, you still wanna go to the talent show?"

"Mmm, no, I don't feel like going anymore. You can stay if you want, but I think I'm gonna head back to the quarry," the earth ninja frowned, forgetting that it was best to travel in pairs. "I'm tired."

Lloyd chose not to point out his teammate's forgetfulness about traveling in pairs. "Well, I think I'll go back, too, and get some extra shuteye. We'll probably need to work a little faster tomorrow, now that they're saying the hurricane is coming in even sooner than anyone thought," was all he said. While this was true, he also thought it would be best to keep his comrade company, in light of the emotional injury that had just been inflicted on Cole a minute ago.

With slouched shoulders, Cole walked with Lloyd along Paradise Road toward the outskirts of town, away from the beach. And away from Brooke.

It hadn't hurt this much when he broke up with Nya.

As they summoned their dragons and flew back to Paradise Quarry, Cole's mind raced with many thoughts...

 _Where is this guy from? Why does he have orange and blue hair? What qualities does she see in him that she doesn't think I have? When is she planning to break up with me?_

The most painful thought was...

 _Will I ever find another girl as wonderful as her?_


	5. Third Night in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Fun fact: Today is March 3, and on this date in 1845, the state of Florida was admitted to the United States. Florida, of course, is a destination to which many college students travel on their spring break.**

 **Hey, FirstFandomFangirl, lovesgod12, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, and AveXCninja11! Loved your comments on the previous chapter!**

 **In this story, the ninja basically rely on landline phones for communication. Dispensing with cutting-edge technology made the story easier for me to write because I haven't closely followed all their tech options during all the seasons. I decided to go with the premise that they didn't need to bring any advanced technology because this mission was not going to be filled with danger...at least not the life-or-death kind!**

 **If the last chapter wasn't surprising enough, see below...**

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - Third Night in Paradise**

The door chime rang at The Pie Shoppe, but on this Wednesday night, Lloyd entered the restaurant by himself.

Cole, still in shock over the end of his relationship with his girlfriend, had no interest in coming to Paradise Beach tonight. However, the two young men thought that it would be OK for the green ninja to travel by himself if he called the phone in their living quarters as soon as he arrived at the restaurant, to inform the earth ninja that he had arrived at his destination without incident. And he would need to call again just before he left to come back to the quarry, so that Cole would know when to expect him back.

In addition to eating supper, Lloyd had another reason to travel to Paradise Beach tonight. Since it had appeared that things between Cole and Brooke had been fine before spring break, other than not being able to see each other as often as Cole would have liked, it just seemed so weird that Brooke would suddenly dump her black-haired beau.

So Lloyd secretly wanted to locate Brooke tonight and get seen by her, to find out how she'd react upon running into the green ninja. Would she hurry away from him with guilt over ditching his fellow ninja? Would she approach him with phony cheeriness? Lloyd hoped to gain some insight as to what was going on with her, for maybe the knowledge would help his friend Cole begin to heal from the emotional wound from which he was currently suffering.

Jeremy, the bow-tied server, was once again on duty at The Pie Shoppe.

"Hey, Lloyd!" he said in greeting as he automatically pulled two menus out of the host stand. A puzzled look crept across his face. "Where's Cole?"

"Um, he had some...business to take care of tonight." That business involved listlessly lying on the bed and watching TV back at the quarry.

"Oh." Jeremy put back one menu.

"Could I have a window seat again?" Lloyd asked. He wanted a good view of the street. "And could I use the phone?"

* * *

Lloyd sat eating his PS Deluxe Burger. He thought it was good, just like Cole had declared his to be, back on Monday night.

A newspaper was opened up on the table to the side of his plate, but he was not really reading it. He was mainly looking out the window, hoping for a glimpse of Brooke.

The top-of-the-hour news began to broadcast over the radio from the restaurant kitchen. The Ninjago Weather Service reported that the hurricane was forecast to make landfall about 25 miles west of Paradise Beach in about 4-6 days.

 _Still not any earlier than Sunday, but even closer to the town than before_ , he thought to himself.

Jeremy suddenly plopped down in the booth seat across from Lloyd. "You apparently made an impression on Sarah last night," he announced. "At school today, she came up to me and asked what I knew about you."

"Wh-what?!" the green ninja responded, flustered. "I only intervened last night 'cause I wanted some peace and quiet, not to impress any girls!"

"I know, and actually at this point I wouldn't care either way," Jeremy said, "'cause the important thing is that she doesn't want to be around Lance anymore. She can finally see what a jerk he is. She said she was gonna kind of hide from him tonight. She went to our friend Abby's house to finish their project for Mr. Cullen's science class."

Just then, their conversation was interrupted by the ring of the door chime as new customers entered the restaurant.

"Excuse me," Jeremy apologized as he left to greet the new arrivals.

Lloyd looked toward the door and was shocked to the see the guy with the orange and cobalt blue hair. He had his arm around a girl.

But the girl was not Brooke.

His female companion for this evening wore her hair in a high red ponytail. _Kind of like Skylor,_ Lloyd thought. This girl's arm was around the guy's waist, and they were laughing and looking like they were having a good time.

 _Why isn't this guy with Brooke?_ Lloyd wondered.

Lloyd watched as Jeremy led them to a nearby table and gave them menus. Then after the server left their table to fill their beverage order, Lloyd watched as the couple exchanged a kiss across the table.

The green ninja's eyes widened. _Wait till Cole hears about this!_

Lloyd ate the rest of his meal slowly so he could stretch his time at the restaurant and observe the couple, who were only ordering dessert tonight. They sure were acting like a boyfriend and girlfriend.

Lloyd finished his dinner before they were finished eating their dessert, so he ordered a slice of pie - his first opportunity to do so since arriving in Paradise Beach. The apple pie was good. He asked Jeremy to present him with his bill so that he could pay it in advance. Lloyd planned to follow the couple to see where they went after their dessert.

Ten minutes later, the couple stood up to pay their bill at the cash register. Lloyd surreptitiously prepared to depart right after them.

The door chime rang as they exited The Pie Shoppe. That was Lloyd's signal to get up.

"Bye, Jeremy! Have a good night," the green ninja waved to the server as he approached the door. He was so intent on leaving that he did not notice the server trying to get his attention.

The door chime rang as a new arrival entered just in front of him. It was Lance. He was alone.

Lance's face registered surprise and then contempt upon recognizing Lloyd from yesterday's confrontation.

"You again!" the obnoxious college student exclaimed. "What are you, the official Pie Shoppe bodyguard? Where's your friend?" he asked, looking around for Cole.

"In the bathroom," Lloyd quickly answered, wanting Lance to believe that the muscular Cole, whose presence seemed to have intimidated the bully yesterday, was once again nearby. "I would suggest you leave before he comes back."

"Yeah, well, I wanna ask your butler a question," he sneered, gesturing to the bow-tied Jeremy, who had come up behind Lloyd. "Do you know where your ex is? She was supposed to meet me at the luau and she didn't show."

"Hey, man, she's my ex. I don't care what she does now," Jeremy replied. "As long as she's not with a jerk like you," he muttered under his breath.

He hadn't intended for Lance to hear that last part, but the college student did.

"What'd you just say?" he demanded. He lunged at the server, but Lloyd's defense reflexes kicked in. In a flash, the ninja had grabbed Lance's arm, spun around the bully, and pinned his arm behind his back.

"He said it was nice of you to drop by and he's sorry you have to leave so soon," Lloyd pointedly explained to Lance.

Twice now, the green ninja had gotten the better of Lance, and the college student was not too happy. "Hey, I'll leave. Now let go of me," he growled. Lloyd complied.

Lance shook an imaginary kink out of his arm as he turned to face the blond. Then, pointing his index finger in Lloyd's face, he issued a warning...

"Watch your back, green guy!"


	6. Surveillance in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Yay! My poll already has had six voters participate! For new readers who may not yet know, I'm collecting feedback on where you think Kai and Sam should spend their honeymoon. (Sam accepted Kai's proposal of marriage in my story** _ **The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident**_ **, which takes place just prior to this one.) I will be keeping this poll active for a while, since there is at least one story I plan to do before I write their post-wedding adventure. So you still have time to vote!**

 **I appreciate all the readers, favers, followers, and AveXCninja11, lovesgod12, and FirstFandomFangirl for your latest comments!**

 **At the start of the chapter below, Lloyd has just "persuaded" Lance, the obnoxious college student, to leave the premises of The Pie Shoppe...**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 - Surveillance in Paradise**

When the bully finally exited the restaurant, causing the door chime to ring once again, Lloyd loudly exhaled. The ninja was mad, not so much at the threat just made against him, but because Lance had spoiled his surveillance of the guy with the orange and blue hair and his ponytailed companion.

"Hey, man, where'd you learn moves like that?" Jeremy asked with admiration, interrupting Lloyd's thoughts. "That was awesome!"

"Oh, uh, I dabble in martial arts," Lloyd sheepishly explained. _If he thinks that's awesome, wonder what he'd say if he saw Spinjitzu?_ the ninja thought.

"Cool! Well, I was gonna tell you when you were leaving that I'm off duty tomorrow night, and since I'm not going to the concert," Jeremy frowned, remembering the reason why, "I invited a couple of buddies over to my house to take a break from helping our families get ready for the hurricane, especially now that school is cancelled for Friday. I thought we'd have some pizza and watch some episodes of Starfarer. So I wondered if you and Cole wanted to come. Whadaya say?"

Lloyd briefly pondered Jeremy's invitation. "Sure, that sounds good, assuming our quarry duties don't change between now and tomorrow. I'll let Cole know." Lloyd thought it would be good for the earth ninja to do something besides hang around their living quarters at the quarry.

Lloyd remembered something. "Say, after I take care of something in town right now, I'm gonna have to make another phone call before I head back to the quarry tonight. Is it OK if I come back here and use the phone again? And maybe in the meantime you can write down your address and the directions?"

"Sounds like a plan," Jeremy nodded.

* * *

Amid a multitude of flaming tiki torches, Lloyd milled about the crowd of young people attending the luau on the beach. Most people had partaken of the feast at that point and were walking around and socializing. Up on a stage, hula dancers performed to tropical music.

The ninja procured a paper cup of punch, sipping it as he strolled. His eyes scanned the area for Brooke. And the orange-haired guy.

Suddenly he saw both of them. Together.

They were with a group that had congregated around one of the temporary round dining tables that had been set up for the occasion. The guy was sitting on one of the folding chairs, and Brooke was standing up behind him, giving him a backrub. At one point, she hugged him around the neck.

Because Brooke was part of a group, Lloyd decided not to let himself be seen by her. Instead, he kept his eye on her and the guy from a distance. For about ten minutes, they remained where they were, and then they said goodbye to the group. Lloyd followed them as they walked back to the hotel, part of the way arm in arm. Deciding to remain unseen, he watched as they entered the lobby and disappeared into the building.

 _What a two-timer that guy is,_ Lloyd thought. _Cole's definitely gonna want to know what's happening!_

* * *

 _Maybe if I had gone with Lloyd, I would have had a better dinner,_ Cole thought as he reclined with his hands behind his head on the lower bunk of the bed in their living quarters at the quarry. The only light source in the room was the illuminated TV screen. Cole was not really interested in the the sports program currently being broadcast.

Earlier in the evening, the earth ninja had opted to eat supper at the diner near the quarry, in lieu of traveling to Paradise Beach. However, it was not an enjoyable experience. Cole had to contend with a flirty waitress who was about 30 years older than him and who wore garish makeup and long false eyelashes. And the chicken dinner he had ordered was not totally agreeing with his stomach at the moment.

A jingle of a keychain and the click of the door lock told Cole that Lloyd had just returned. A quick check of the clock revealed that the green ninja had arrived at the expected time, based on his earlier phone call from The Pie Shoppe.

"Hey!" Lloyd said in greeting as he closed the door behind him.

"What's up?" Cole responded listlessly, his eyes not moving from the TV.

Lloyd took a hold of the room's wooden desk chair and positioned it in Cole's direction before seating himself on it. "I got some news you might be interested in."

"I doubt I'll be interested," Cole said, turning his head to look at his comrade, "but what is it?"

"You know the guy with orange and blue hair?

"Yes, I know him," the earth ninja replied, rolling his eyes in exasperation. For hours, he'd been replaying yesterday's scene of this guy and Brooke in his mind. "What about this guy?"

"I saw him with another girl tonight."

"What?!" Cole sat up on the edge of the bed, totally forgetting about his stomach.

"Yeah. When I was in The Pie Shoppe, he came in with a girl with a long red ponytail - kinda like Skylor wore her hair. And they sat at a booth to have pie. And they were kissing."

"Now, Lloyd, are you positively sure it was the same guy?"

"Dude, how many guys have orange and blue hair?"

"Did you see Brooke?"

"Yeah! After I left the restaurant, I walked through the crowd at the luau, and then I saw Brooke with the guy. They didn't see me, though."

Cole asked a question to which he dreaded hearing an affirmative answer. "Did they kiss?"

"No, not that I saw, but when they went back to the hotel, they had their arms hooked together part of the way."

Cole balled his fist and punched his other palm. "Scumbag! How dare he cheat on Brooke!"

"Dude, she's cheating on YOU," Lloyd reminded him.

Cole paused. Lloyd was right. Brooke WAS cheating on him. So why did he care that a guy was cheating on her?

"I-I guess I don't want to see anything bad happen to her," he said softly, looking down at the floor.

He then looked up at Lloyd with newfound resolve. "OK, Lloyd, tomorrow we're going into town and we're gonna find that guy, and I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind."

"Uh, actually, Cole, we've been invited to Jeremy's house for pizza tomorrow."

"We have?"

"Yeah." From his pocket, Lloyd pulled out the piece of paper with Jeremy's address and phone number. "He's got the night off from work, so since school is cancelled for Friday anyway, he invited a couple of his buddies to come over before everyone leaves town ahead of the hurricane. We're going to watch some episodes of Starfarer."

"Hmm. Well, that was nice of him," Cole said. He looked down at the floor in thought for a minute.

Then he sighed. "I think I still want to try one more time to look for Brooke, to find out what went wrong between us."

Cole looked up at Lloyd. "But I'll only give myself maybe an hour and a half to search. If I don't find her by then, I'll call Jeremy's house from The Pie Shoppe to let you know I'm on my way over. If I do find her, I'll invite her to The Pie Shoppe to talk over pie and coffee, and I'll call you to let you know that's where I'll be."


	7. Fourth Night in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Surprise! Here's the next chapter of this story already! I decided to alter my original posting schedule of Mondays and Thursdays because I'm excited to share this tale with you! (Must be the spring air that is finally arriving in my part of the USA!) So I'm going ahead and posting the four remaining chapters of this story during this week, one per night.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7 - Fourth Night in Paradise**

On this Thursday night, Cole sat by himself eating a chicken sandwich in a booth toward the back of The Pie Shoppe, near the restrooms. He was grabbing a quick bite to eat for supper, since he wasn't going to Jeremy's house for a while, if at all, depending on whether or not he found Brooke. Feeling a bit self-conscious about dining by himself, he had asked the server on duty, an older woman named Flo, to seat him in an inconspicuous booth. But right now it hadn't mattered anyway, since he was the only customer currently in the dining establishment.

As Cole ate his meal, he mentally went over the ninjas' itinerary for the next two days. The latest forecast of the Ninjago Weather Service now stated that the eye of the hurricane would directly hit Paradise Beach on Sunday afternoon. In light of the updated news, the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources had asked if the ninja brothers could do some earth blasting and earth moving at the quarry in the morning, until the facility was shut down at midday and the quarry employees were sent home to help their families prepare to evacuate. Then the ninja would spend the rest of Friday and all day Saturday helping the Department personnel to shore up the Paradise Beach beachfront and the beaches located within twenty-five miles of either side of it. The young men would then head back home to Ninjago City on Saturday night, ahead of the storm.

Cole was ready to head back home. The expectations of fun he had initially held for the week had fizzled into nothingness.

As the earth ninja ate a forkful of slaw that accompanied his sandwich, his eyes widened as he watched two new customers walk arm in arm into the diner: the guy with the orange and blue hair and the girl with the high red ponytail, just like Lloyd had described her.

The couple laughed and clung to each other as Flo greeted them and guided them to a window booth.

After Flo had given them their dessert menus - apparently the couple was here for just pie - and then had walked away, Cole observed the couple exchange a kiss across the table.

Cole was angered once again. _What a scumbag that guy is, for cheating on Brooke!_ he thought to himself.

A minute later, the girl stood up from the booth and walked past Cole to the ladies' room.

Cole realized that he now had an opportunity to confront the guy.

The earth ninja stood up, took a deep breath, and walked over to the couple's booth, where the guy sat studying the menu of pie choices.

"Hi!" Cole said tersely.

"Um, hi," the guy replied, looking up from his menu. "Can I help you?"

"That girl you came in here with. Is she your girlfriend?" Cole asked.

"Yeah. So?"

"How about that other girl you've been with this week, the tall brunette?"

"Wait a minute." The guy slowly stood up to face Cole and put his hands on his hips. "Are you stalking me or something?"

"I'm just saying that you need to stay away from the brunette!"

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" the guy sneered, giving Cole a shove.

Cole was annoyed that this guy of wiry build, who wasn't even as tall as the earth ninja, dared think he could intimidate the muscular warrior. Giving the guy a shove back in return, Cole snarled, "Brooke deserves better than you!"

The expression on the guy's face changed from a menacing one to a shocked one as he asked…

"You know my cousin's name?"

Cole's jaw dropped. "Y-you two are c-cousins?"

The guy cupped his chin, studying Cole for a few moments before his eyes widened. "Hey! Are you Brooke's boyfriend? She said you wear a lot of black clothing."

Cole's face reddened. "Um, yeah. Name's Cole."

"I'm Aaron." Brooke's cousin stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Cole. Sorry for the shove."

Cole shook his hand. He vaguely remembered Brooke mentioning having a cousin around their age. "Um, nice to meet you too, Aaron. Look, man, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," he apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't know she had a cousin who lived in Paradise Beach."

"Well, actually I don't live here. I'm here on my spring break from Castle College. What brings YOU to Paradise Beach?"

"I've been here in town this week on business and I was gonna surprise Brooke the other night, but then I saw her walking with you, and I just thought, well, that…"

"Ohhh," Aaron began to laugh heartily. "You thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend! That is too funny!"

"What's too funny, Aaron?" the girl with the high red ponytail asked as she walked up to them after returning from the restroom.

Aaron put his arm around the girl. "Macy, it's too funny that I ran into Brooke's boyfriend here in Paradise Beach. This is Cole. Cole, this is my ONE and ONLY girlfriend, Macy. She goes to Castle College, too."

"Hi Cole! It's nice to meet you," the girl cheerily greeted him as she shook his hand. "Brooke is gonna be so surprised when she gets here! She's supposed to meet us here any minute."

The restaurant's door chime rang. Suddenly they heard a female's blood-curdling, eardrum-shattering scream. Cole, whose back was turned away from the door, whirled around to face the entrance and reflexively assumed an attack posture against whoever - or whatever - caused the scream.


	8. Paradise Found

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Can anyone guess where I might have gotten the band name The Crease? :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 8 - Paradise Found**

Cole had just whirled around and instinctively positioned himself in front of his two new acquaintances in The Pie Shoppe, ready to protect them from whatever danger had just arrived at the restaurant.

No danger had entered tonight, however. The scream had been uttered by a lovely willowy brunette in a floral sundress who was extremely delighted to see her ninja boyfriend. She rushed up to him and threw her arms around his waist exuberantly.

"COLE! What are you doing here?!" Brooke squealed, a huge smile on her face as she squeezed him tightly.

"Hi, babe!" Cole grinned at her effervescence as he gently cupped her shoulders and leaned down to give her a kiss. "Surprised?"

"I am!" Still wearing a huge smile, she let go of his waist with one arm, but she still held tight to the earth ninja with her other arm as they turned to face Aaron and Macy. "Don't tell me you guys were in on this surprise, too, you stinkers!" she jokingly scolded them.

Aaron struggled to suppress his laughter. "Um, I'll let Cole explain everything."

Cole cast a glance of appreciation toward Brooke's cousin for not revealing what had transpired just minutes ago.

Flo came up to them with some more pie menus. "Are you all going to sit together for pie?" the server asked.

"Yeah," Cole answered. "I'm done with my dinner over there" - he nodded over to the booth he had come from - "so if you could please tally up my bill and bring it over here, that would be great. Thanks!"

"Sure thing," she replied as she placed the additional menus on the table and left.

The four young people slid themselves into the window booth, with Aaron switching to Macy's side and Brooke and Cole occupying the other side.

Brooke turned to the earth ninja. "Hey, sweetie, after we eat our pie, can you come to the concert with us? It's free!"

"Yeah, it's co-sponsored by Borg Industries," Aaron added. "Whadaya say, Cole? Do you like The Crease?"

"Love 'em!" Cole answered enthusiastically. "Yeah, I'll go! I just need to make a phone call first before we go," he said, remembering the need to contact Lloyd.

"Great!" Brooke grinned. She excitedly patted her boyfriend's forearm.

As she made that little gesture, Cole felt sheepish at doubting her affection for him. He should have known that she was simply the kind of person who was not shy about being physically expressive, and all this week, that's all she was being. Aaron seemed to be that way, too. _It must run in their family_ , he surmised.

Flo came back to the booth with Cole's dinner bill and left again with the young people's pie orders.

"So tell me what brought you down here to the coast, sweetie," Brooke urged him.

Cole didn't know if Brooke had ever mentioned to her cousin that he was a ninja. Therefore, he avoided disclosing that fact as he explained to the group that he and Lloyd were spending the week in the tropical region doing contract work for the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources, specifically helping out Paradise Quarry in the quest to shore up beachfronts against damage by the impending hurricane.

He turned to Brooke. "So, knowing we were gonna be located so close to Paradise Beach, I thought we'd surprise you. But the first night we came here to town, we got here too late to find you."

"The second night, we couldn't find you," he fibbed.

"Last night, I was busy 'cause I had to take care of some business," he fibbed again.

"But tonight it worked out great, and I got to meet Aaron and Macy, too!" Cole hoped Brooke wouldn't ask for the exact details of how the meeting came about. He cast another glance of appreciation toward Brooke's cousin for keeping the embarrassing confrontation between them a secret, even from Macy.

"I'm glad you got to meet them. I found out just before I left Ninjago City that they were gonna be down here, too!" Brooke grinned. "And I guess it's just in time that we all met up, too. Today, the kids from all the colleges got word that our trips are getting cut short on account of that nasty storm. We've been asked to leave tomorrow so that the hotel can start boarding up windows and stuff."

"Fortunately, Ninjago U is reopening the dorms earlier than scheduled so that we'll have a place to stay when we get back to Ninjago City tomorrow night," she added.

"Same with Castle College," Macy piped up.

"Lloyd and I'll be leaving this place tomorrow, too," Cole said, "but we're traveling up and down the coast to help spread gravel and shore up some beaches. We'll be heading home Saturday night."

Flo returned to the booth with the orders of pie and beverages.

As Cole ate his blackberry pie with the lovely brunette and two new friends, he realized he finally was enjoying his time in Paradise.

There was still one unanswered question that troubled him, however.

"Aaron, why is your hair dyed orange and blue?"

"School colors," Aaron smiled, tapping his head. "Thought I'd show my school spirit this week against those loser colleges, especially Ninjago U!" he teased.

Brooke playfully slapped her cousin's hand as she scrunched her nose at him.

* * *

The first half of the rock concert was enjoyable. The Crease even played some of the songs from their upcoming album. As the band excused themselves for the 20-minute intermission, Cole made a mental note to purchase the new collection of music on its release date next month.

Many concert goers stood up and started milling about as they waited for the concert's second half to begin.

"You wanna take a walk?" Cole asked Brooke. She agreed.

As they stood up, Cole offered to bring back refreshments for Aaron and Macy. They politely declined.

Cole planned to take Brooke on a stroll down the beach. Before they left the concert area, however, they heard their names being called out behind them. The couple turned around to see Lloyd and Jeremy.

"Lloyd!" Brooke exclaimed. "It's good to see you!" She gave the green ninja a big hug.

"Good to see you, too, Brooke!" Lloyd replied. Thanks to the phone call Cole had made to Jeremy's house from The Pie Shoppe earlier in the evening, the blond ninja knew why the earth ninja had just been holding hands with the brunette after all his recent angst.

While Brooke and Lloyd exchanged some brief small talk, Cole bumped fists with Jeremy. "Hey, man, thanks for the invitation to have pizza. I would have come if I hadn't found my girlfriend," the earth ninja said, gesturing to Brooke.

"No problem. Glad you found her."

"But I thought a bunch of you guys were gonna watch Starfarer," Cole said in confusion. "What brings you to the concert?"

"We all had some pizza and watched maybe two episodes of Starfarer, but then my buddies felt like they ought to head home and do a little more prep for the hurricane," Jeremy explained. "So then Lloyd and I were talking, and I told him that at school today, Sarah said she was going to the concert tonight with Abby and some other friends, but she wanted to avoid Lance."

He continued. "Lloyd thought maybe we should go down to the concert and follow him around to make sure he wasn't giving her any trouble."

Cole smirked as he folded his arms. "And you agreed because...why?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"I-I guess I don't want to see anything bad happen to her," the high school youth replied softly, looking down at the sand.

At that point, the ninja introduced Brooke and Jeremy to each other, and they all made polite small talk for a short time until Jeremy excused himself to get into the rapidly lengthening line at the concession stand to buy a soft drink.

"I'll meet you at the stand in a minute," Lloyd said to Jeremy as the Pie Shoppe server said goodbye to the group and departed.

Lloyd spent a bit more time talking with Cole and Brooke, until Lloyd could tell that the earth ninja was ready to have some private time with his girlfriend. After confirming that the ninja brothers would meet back at The Pie Shoppe after the concert to head back to the quarry, the green ninja parted ways with the couple in order to join Jeremy at the concession stand.

As he walked along, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he was shocked to find Sarah standing there.

"Hi, uh, Lloyd. I'm Sarah," she introduced herself with some hesitation.

"Uh, yeah, Sarah." Lloyd awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "I remember you from the other night at The Pie Shoppe."

Sarah looked embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm not proud of that. But by the end of that night I decided I didn't want to be around those guys anymore."

"That's what Jeremy told me."

"Oh? You guys were talking about me?" Sarah smiled. She moved a step closer to him, obviously enamored with the blond ninja.

"J-just briefly," Lloyd said, flustered. He took a step back in an attempt to discourage the teen girl from believing he had any feelings for her.

Sarah's smile suddenly disappeared. "Oh, no."

Her gaze was focused on something behind Lloyd's shoulder. He turned around to find Lance standing there with his hands on his hips.

"Hey, Mr. Pie Shoppe bodyguard! I just saw your tall friend heading down the beach, so he won't be back for a while. Now I can teach you a lesson about making a fool of me. And stealing my girl!"


	9. Love Blooms in Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hope you enjoyed my Nexo Knights-influenced names in the previous chapter!**

 **In this chapter (the second to last of this story), I made up the song title "Dance Forever With You." Hope you like this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, particularly the second half! :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 9 - Love Blooms in Paradise**

The next thing Lloyd knew, he was lying on the sand on his back, rubbing his sore jaw where Lance had just punched him.

 _Uncle wouldn't be pleased that I didn't have my guard up_ , Lloyd thought, briefly imagining if this were a training session and his wise teacher had been standing there, observing.

"Lance! Stop!" Sarah screamed.

Lance grabbed her arm. "Come on, Sarah! Let's leave this loser alone."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, Lance! Leave me alone!"

Lance began to drag her along, but just then, his path was blocked by Jeremy.

"The girl just said she didn't want to go with you," the high school youth stated with his hands on his hips.

By this time, Lloyd had jumped back up on his feet. He was prepared to enter the conflict when he needed to, but for now he hung back. This had turned into Jeremy's fight.

Lance let go of Sarah and clenched his fists. "You yourself said you didn't care who she hung out with, moron, so why do you care now?"

"That was when I considered her to be an ex-girlfriend. But now I'm not considering her an ex yet until I have a good talk with her."

"So until then," Jeremy continued. "She's still my girlfriend, and you need to keep your paws off her!"

Sarah gasped. She had never seen Jeremy act so chivalrous before. She liked it.

"Make me, ya little high school punk!" Lance growled, reaching for Jeremy's shirt collar.

But to the college student's surprise, Jeremy landed a punch on his jaw. Lance staggered but did not fall down.

"Jeremy, watch out!" Sarah shouted.

Lance reached for Jeremy's shirt collar a second time, and this time he managed to grab a hold of it. Lloyd was just about to intervene when a big burly uniformed security officer approached.

Lloyd was shocked to recognize the man. Hal was a member of the quarry crew who apparently was making extra money tonight at a second job, keeping order at the concert.

"What's going on here?" Hal demanded to know, his voice gruff.

Then he recognized the green ninja. "Oh, hi, Lloyd," he said, his demeanor softening. "Someone giving you trouble tonight?" he asked, eyeballing the three other young people.

"Officer, this guy" - Sarah spoke up, gesturing to Lance - "was trying to drag me away when I didn't want to go, and he hit Lloyd here and was about to hit Jeremy."

"Is this true?" the officer asked Lance.

"I only hit in self defense," Lance whined.

Hal looked at Lloyd, who rolled his eyes and shook his head side to side. "Sarah's the one telling the truth."

"Then that's it. You're coming with me, son. No one messes with a ninja on my watch." Hal deftly spun Lance around and handcuffed him. "We're taking a walk down to the office."

"See ya in the morning, Lloyd!" the officer called as he hauled away the college student.

"Bye!" Lloyd called, waving goodbye to Hal. He turned to Jeremy and Sarah. They were both staring at him.

"You're...a ninja?" Sarah stammered.

The green ninja blushed. "Um, yeah," he admitted.

"And is Cole…" Jeremy began.

"He's a ninja, too," Lloyd answered his unfinished question.

Jeremy let out a low whistle. "Wow! Well, that explains the martial arts thing."

Jeremy and Sarah looked at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to do next.

Lloyd folded his arms, observing the couple. "You know what, guys? It seems you two have a little catching up to do, so I'll leave you alone to do that."

"Heh heh, yeah. How about if we get a soda, Sarah?" Jeremy suggested. He turned to Lloyd. "I never did get a drink. I heard Lance tell his buddies that he saw Cole leave the concert area, so he was gonna find you. That's when I followed him."

"Glad you did," Lloyd said. "Well, I guess I'll say goodbye now, guys. I'm glad we met this week. Stay safe these next few days!" He fistbumped Jeremy as he added, "Let's get together when you get to Ninjago U this fall."

Jeremy nodded. "Sounds like a plan!"

Sarah gave the green ninja a hug. "Yeah, maybe on a weekend when I come visiting from Castle College, where I'm going to attend!" she smiled.

"That would be fun," Lloyd chuckled. "See you guys!" He turned away and departed from the couple, feeling certain that they would be making plans to attend the Paradise Beach High School prom together before the evening was over.

* * *

Meanwhile, the earth ninja took the hand of his girlfriend and guided her away from the concert area and down the beach, along the waterline where the ocean lazily lapped the sand. A slight breeze ruffled their hair and stirred Brooke's sundress.

"So what do you think of the concert so far?" he asked her.

"Awesome!" she replied as they walked. "They still deserve a spot in my list of top ten favorite groups. How are you liking it?"

"Great!" he answered. "But their music isn't the only reason I'm enjoying the concert," he said as he gave her hand a squeeze.

Brooke let go of his hand, but only so she could wrap her arm around his waist as they continued walking. "I'm glad you're here at Paradise Beach," she said, smiling up at him.

"Me, too, babe," Cole smiled back, draping his arm around her shoulders. "I mean, I'm not glad about the reason that brought me here - the hurricane - but I'm glad it worked out that we could spend some time together in this awesome place. It's good they're sending you guys home early, to make sure you're safe."

With her free hand, Brooke brushed away a tendril of hair blown into her eyes by the sea breeze. "Well, you stay safe yourself, OK, sweetie?" she pleaded. "Promise me you'll call me as soon as you can to let me know you're out of the hurricane's way. 'Cause you know me - I'll worry, otherwise!" she grinned.

"I'll call. I promise," he assured her, giving her shoulders a squeeze.

They continued walking in a comfortable silence. Suddenly, in the distance they heard some muffled talking over the loudspeaker and cheering by the crowd.

"Ack! I forgot about the concert!" Brooke laughed. She grabbed Cole's hand and started to drag him in the direction of the sound, with the intention of running back.

"Wait!" he stopped her as the first few measures of a song wafted their way. It was a song with a slow, steady beat.

"They're playing 'Dance Forever With You,'" he explained. "As long as we have a whole dance floor to ourselves" - he moved his chin to indicate the surrounding beach - "let's dance!"

With their eyes locked in a steady gaze, he drew her close to him. He knew all sorts of dances - thanks to his musical upbringing - but right now, on a warm tropical night with the moon shining down on a sandy seaside beach, the simplest dance would be the best kind.

He slid his muscular arms around her thin waist and held her warm body against him. Her long brown hair, loosely hanging down her back, tickled his forearms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. They simply swayed to the slow beat, with not a word between them.

As Cole gazed into her soft hazel eyes, a thought suddenly crossed his mind. A thought that terrified and excited him at the same time...

 _I love her._

To calm the fluttering butterflies in his stomach, he reminded himself that there was plenty of time to ponder the implications of this new thought, and plenty of time to act on it. The next few months belonged to Kai and Sam, anyway.

The song ended, but he did not release her. Instead, his lips were drawn to hers, like a bee drawn to a pollen-laden flower.

He did not hear what the next song was, nor did he care. All that mattered at that moment was her intoxicating vanilla scent and her soft, warm, affectionate kisses. He had sampled them before, but tonight, next to the majestic ocean, they were especially exquisite.


	10. Return from Paradise

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hey, readers! Thanks for having taken the time to check out this spring break tale! And now that I am completing my binge of chapter posting this week, I wish to acknowledge TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, FirstFandomFangirl, lovesgod12, AveXCninja11, and Naruby7 for your hilarious and sweet comments that you posted about Chapters 6 and beyond!**

 **Tidbits about the chapter below:**

 ***-To see the original account of Kai's proposal of marriage to Sam, see _The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident_ \- chapters 9 and 10.**

 ***-I made up the name of the singer Joel Taylor.**

 ***-And the mention of Sam's Aunt Jill is a whiff of a tale I may eventually write, though not soon.**

 **Right now, however, I am pleased to announce that I've got the first seven chapters of a new story written! It takes place approximately three months after the end of this story but before Kai and Sam's wedding. Kai, Cole, and Zane travel to help the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources battle another natural disaster. But during the mission, one ninja disappears! It's likely I will post the beginning chapter by the end of this month.**

 **Enjoy the conclusion of _The Fire Within: Trouble in Paradise_. Take care, everyone!**

 **\- MNC 3/11/2016**

* * *

 **Chapter 10 - Return from Paradise**

Two and a half days later, after fulfilling their mission for the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources, Cole and Lloyd arrived back in Ninjago City on a sunny Sunday morning. Departing from the coastal region at midnight, they had ridden their dragons all night to get back to the Bounty. They were greeted by Nya, Kai, Jay, and Zane, who were sitting at the breakfast table.

"Welcome back, quarry men!" Nya exclaimed, giving each of them a hug. "You guys look like you got some sun."

"Yep. There was plenty of it this past week," Cole replied, surveying the dining table while waiting for Lloyd to finish washing his hands at the kitchen sink. Today was apparently another Frosted Oats cereal day, supplemented by orange juice and slices of toast. "Hey, where's the potato and cheese frittata you made in honor of our return?" he joked, remembering how he had seen the fancy egg breakfast item on the menu of The Pie Shoppe.

"We're eating light this morning, on account of stuffing ourselves last night. You sure missed a good meal. Jim and Jan treated us all to dinner at the Towertop Restaurant," Kai gloated, speaking of the generosity of his fiancee's parents. "They wanted to thank us for our hospitality this past week before they left to go back home."

"Yeah, and since you guys weren't there for them to buy meals for, I didn't feel guilty about ordering the lobster bisque soup with my dinner," Jay added. "Well, OK, maybe I felt a little guilty," he admitted. "But the soup was good!"

Zane slid along the bench seat to make room for Lloyd. "We had the pleasure of Brooke's company last night at the restaurant. The Miller family invited her, too, since she had arrived back in Ninjago City early after her shortened vacation," the ice ninja stated, knowing that the subject of Sam's roommate and dear friend would be of interest to the earth ninja.

"I heard about the restaurant outing. Brooke told me late last night when I called her to say we were leaving the coast, and Sensei mentioned it when I called to tell him we were just about to head home," Cole explained as he finished washing his own hands and joined the others at the table.

Jay slid along the other bench seat to give the earth ninja some space. "You know, Cole, Brooke said you two didn't connect until Thursday," the lightning ninja pointed out. "Was that because there was something else you found to your liking on the Paradise Beach menu?" he inquired with a smirk, arching his eyebrow at the earth ninja.

"No," Lloyd piped up, "but for a while, it looked like Brooke found something else on HER Paradise Beach menu that she liked!"

"Shut it, green machine!" Cole commanded, pausing in mid-reach for slices of toast. "Remember that Brooke doesn't know I was thinking that!"

Lloyd grinned. "And that she doesn't know you almost punched her cousin Aaron?"

"WHAT?!" exclaimed their teammates, eagerly leaning forward in their seats for an explanation.

Casting a withering glance at the green ninja, Cole took a deep breath and, while he prepared his cereal bowl and buttered his toast, relayed the events leading up to meeting Brooke at The Pie Shoppe.

"So if Aaron - her own cousin - is not going to tell Brooke that I thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend," he concluded, waving his butter knife, "the least YOU guys could do is not tell her, either. Or Sam," he finished, pointing the knife at Kai.

Kai put his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. "OK, OK. I won't say a word. By the way, Sensei gave the rest of us the day off today, too, along with you and Lloyd, so I'm going over to Ninjago U to say goodbye to Sam's family when they bring her back to her dorm room, and to deliver a package from Sensei to her Aunt Jill before they leave. Do you wanna come with me, to see Brooke?"

"Not right now. I'm gonna catch a few Zs this morning and go over to see her later this afternoon. Last night she told me she wanted to spend some time walking around the atrium at the Adams Hotel and pretending she was still in the tropics." The warm, moist air of the indoor enclosure, which featured tall, lush, green plants and koi-filled ponds, provided an oasis from the chillier spring weather of Ninjago City.

Kai grinned. "Well, be careful! The atrium's a dangerous place. People have been known to get engaged there!" The fire ninja had proposed marriage to Sam in that very place just last month.

In the days before he left for the ocean, Cole would have rolled his eyes at Kai, but today he simply smiled. He was not planning to ask Brooke a certain question anytime soon, but he had been thinking about where might be a good place to do so.

"Oh, hey, Cole, I was gonna tell you something," Jay snapped his fingers as he remembered some news. "Did you hear that the Joel Taylor concert at the Arena got rescheduled? Laryngitis kept him from performing the other night, so the new concert date is June 1st."

 _Why does June 1st seem significant?_ Cole wondered, and then he remembered. Brooke had said it was the date of her last final exam of the semester.

"Sweet! Brooke will be done with her tests and I can take her to see him perform, after all!" the earth ninja exclaimed.

* * *

Cole returned to the Bounty that evening after spending a nice afternoon with Brooke at the atrium, eating dinner with her at Cindy's Restaurant (Ninjago City's equivalent of The Pie Shoppe), and escorting her back to Schilling Hall, her dormitory. He brought her back at a fairly early hour, since she was going to resume her classes tomorrow and he was going to resume his training regimen after his weeklong mission to the coast.

He flipped on the radio when he got home. The hurricane had made landfall at Paradise Beach just hours earlier, but it was not as strong as first feared. Cole hoped that the townsfolk had safely evacuated and that the town's buildings would not be severely damaged by the storm.

When the earth ninja found himself falling asleep while playing video games, he knew it was time to retire for the night, so he excused himself and went to the bunkroom.

While preparing for bed, he reflected upon the events of the past week. He had spent lots of time outdoors, exercised his elemental powers, met some nice people, ate some good food, helped coastal communities brace for a season of hurricanes, and realized he loved a beautiful girl named Brooke Dawson.

As soon as his head hit his pillow, Cole fell asleep, exhausted but happy. Spring break had turned out to be a good one, after all.

**** The End ****


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